Monday, December 6, 2010

In a previous post about Third Places, I talked about some of my growing views, hospitality and the building which we lived in. Over the past few months there has been a greater shift in my life then has every happened previously, and much to my surprise. Many things I thought were foundational are now not, and things that appear temporary are proving eternal significance. This time has been very challenging but also one I am very grateful for.

Just last week events with the tenants in our unit below entirely changed my understanding of the building we live in. Initially I sensed that it was putting to rest hopes and dreams I had, but now after some time I clearly see God was using a crazy drunken tenant (now evicted tenant) to expand our dreams. The dream for what our building can become is more clear and much larger than we had first imagined, but so is my dream for caring for my wife and family.

Immediately this means we are actively and aggressively pursuing buying a house. A safe beautiful space for my family to worship, heal, and rest up for the great journey ahead of us. The building will not only be filled with new renters once it has some work done it on. But it will be fill with artist who have a vision to live in community with one another; shared meals, shared garden, and shared vision. This will be a place of both healing and preparing artist to make a living with their passions and engage the world in a deep and meaningful way. I see a big part of what we are going to do similar to L'Abri. Karin and I realizing we need to get out of the way made this something so much more than we could ever imagine.

What needs to happen now:Need to get work done so the bottom unit can be move in ready, we have some very interesting and cool plans for that.Need prayer as we do not have the specifics of plan/map of what this will look like.Need to talk with wise people who have pursued and been involved with similar communities.Need to get the plan on paper and prayed over.Need to settle our families' living situation.

I'm sure there are a million more things that I could list here but this is an exciting time and I look forward to sharing what the specifics will look like and presenting the name publicly!